Chapter 4

July 13

I made my way quietly down to the kitchens, the whole time hoping that Grace and Tara were okay, only to walk in and find the two of them sat at the table.

“Amara.” Grace jumped up to greet me, her face one of concern, a look that was going to stick if she didn’t stop.

“Are you both okay?” I asked the two girls, neither looked like they had been crying, or that they were injured.

“Yes, they didn’t touch us, we just showed them to their rooms, and they dismissed us.” Tara stated from her still seated position as she looked me over. “How badly are you hurt?” She asked me and I frowned for a moment before realising that they had assumed the worst, I had been in that room with him for over an hour.

I thought about what actually had happened, but my wolf was begging me not to say anything, not to tell them the truth. I didn’t understand why but she had never led me wrong before.

“I’m okay, no extra injuries. I’m just tired. I’m going to go back to bed.” I answered as I did just that, ignoring their eyes on my back I walked through the storeroom to the slave’s quarters and quietly opened my door, careful not to wake the still sleeping Mia. God, it felt like a lifetime had passed since I snuck out of here.

I hurt too much to even attempt taking off my dress, so still clothed in the uncomfortable grey fabric I climbed onto the thin mattress and let my body relax. I felt like I had just escaped my death, I mean it probably wasn’t as serious as all that, but all I could picture was Carly’s dead eyes when she came back from her visit with the Alpha that had visited last time.

‘What’s going on, I don’t understand any of this.’ I spoke to myself as much as my wolf, not really expecting her to have any answers either, she may be more observant than me, but we were both in the dark with this one.

‘I don’t know, I can’t even think around the man, the mate bond is stronger than I had expected it to be, it’s hard to resist the pull.’

‘Is that why you were so quiet?’

‘Well, I didn’t think you would appreciate me telling you to jump his bones, which was just about the only thing I could focus on. God the smell of him.’ She practically purred inside me, and now that she was no longer fighting to restrain herself, I could feel her desire swimming through me, mixing with my own and suddenly found it very necessary to squeeze my legs together.

‘How could the Goddess do this? Why would she match us with a monster?’

‘I figure we must have been really bad in our past life.’ My wolf answered sadly before falling thoughtfully quiet. Not that I could blame her, I didn’t have an answer either.

I twisted onto my side, relieving the pressure from my injured ribs and closed my eyes. I needed to get up and take food to the pack members later today, I had already missed a day, I couldn’t let them go without any longer. Thankfully Mrs H would likely only assign me light duties for the next couple of days, which should give me enough time to sneak out.

The morning was a bit hectic, when Mrs H discovered that the visitors arrived during the night, she spent a good ten minute’s fussing over Grace and Tara, I didn’t volunteer that I had broken the rules and neither of the girls said anything either, although they were watching me a lot during assignments.

True to expectation Mrs H assigned me to help Kyle in the gardens this morning. A reward I probably didn’t deserve given the trouble I could have gotten her into last night, but I was going to take it anyway. I loved being outside, and Kyle barely made me do anything.

“The family and all guests will be dining on the terrace this evening so he needs extra hands to ensure the gardens are perfect, it should be light enough work that it won’t injure you further. Come and see me when you’re done with Kyle and I’ll see what else we can set you to.” Her smile was heart-warming and I instantly felt a little guilty for betraying her, although the excitement of my wolf overshadowed anything I could have felt, we both loved being outside, and a glance through the window showed that it would be a glorious day.

I didn’t wait around to hear the rest of the assignments, instead making my way outside happily, although tentatively, my ribs were still giving me trouble.

Kyle was already hard at work, pruning the rose bushes to the right of the staff entrance, the huge bushes were interspersed with other flowers but the roses there were my favourite, it was also what sectioned off the area staff were allowed to use from the family’s area.

“Hey Kyle.” I greeted with a smile that fell at his sharp intake of air, I forgot about my face.

“Goddess, Amara. What the hell happened?” He questioned dropping his gloves on the ground and gently reaching out to touch the bruised skin around my eye, at least the swelling was almost gone and I could see better now.

“Oh nothing.” I mumbled waiving a hand. “I’m fine. Mrs H said I’m with you this morning. Where do you need me?”

“Amara…” He trailed off like he wanted to say more but shook his head and grabbed the gloves off the ground. Kyle was somewhere in his forties, he wasn’t a slave but worked for the Alpha so he got to leave the house, he was my one source of information about the pack. Thankfully he was also a gossip.

“Come on, I wanna know what’s been happening.” I smiled, practically bouncing on my toes as he smiled at my enthusiasm.

“Oh I see how it is, I thought we were friends Amara, but really you’re just using me for the gossip.” He joked and I laughed lightly. “Here, get to work on the other side of this, make sure you wear gloves.” He stated handing me some pruning shears and gloves and I made my way round to the other side of the bush, the Alphas side.

“So, how’s your family?” I asked.

“They’re good thank you. Marla is trying to figure out how to grow vegetables, so she’s driving me crazy with questions about gardening. Mathew is still struggling with science, although he did say that book you recommended was helping, so thank you for that. And Marc is his usual troublesome self.” He stated ending with a slight huff.

“What’s he been doing now?” I bit my lip as I tried not to laugh, Marc was the troublemaker of the two teens, and constantly getting into some sort of trouble.

“He’s got a girlfriend.” Kyle answered as I started pruning back the bushes, exposing the flowers that were hiding away.

“Oh dear, how did that go down?” I asked with a wince, while I had spent my entire life behind these walls, I wasn’t ignorant of shifter law and tradition. Dating someone before you have found your wolf is deemed unfavourable.

All it does is cause heartache if, when you shift, you find your true mate. There’s no resisting the mate bond, as I knew only too well today. My thoughts instantly went back to the visiting Alpha and I was flooded with the sparks of the bond as I imagined his thick arms covered in tattoos, his handsome face, his dark hair.

I shook off the thoughts as I focused on Kyles story of the argument he had had with the girls dad. “Sounds like you’ve got your hands full then.” I smiled.

“And then some.” He grumbled as he tugged on something causing the bush to shift from the other side.

“What else is going on in town?”

Over the next hour Kyle and I worked methodically, moving from one flowerbed to another ensuring that the Alphas family would have only the most perfect of views when they sat down for lunch. We were almost done with the pruning and ready to move onto cleaning the terrace when I felt the tingles of the mate bond.

Gentle this time but it was still startling considering I hadn’t been thinking about the Alpha.

Kyle was bent down in front of me, his hands buried in the soil as he dug up weeds, but his eyes were firmly fixed over my shoulder his face a picture of concern.

“Amara?” He asked, and I tensed, I wasn’t really supposed to be helping Kyle with the gardening, if the Alpha was behind us, we could both be in trouble. With a held breath I turned my head to look behind me and my eyes met the dark blue of the visiting Alpha, Abel Williams, as he made his way across the lawn to us.

‘His name suits him.’ My wolfs voice sounded in my head even as her desire for the man increased, causing my hands to shake.

“Shit.” I grumbled aloud, ignoring the wide-eyed expression on Kyles face I dropped the trowel I was using tugged off the gloves, stood with a wince at my protesting ribs and turned to face the man that was making my life very difficult right now.

“Alpha Williams.” I greeted, bowing my head in submission as was tradition before standing to meet his gaze. “How can I help?”

His eyes darkened as he took in my appearance, no doubt covered in dirt and still bruised from my fight with the Alpha, I must look a mess, something that had my face flushing.

“Walk with me.” He demanded and I nodded lightly, wondering if he now wanted what he didn’t take last night.

I turned my head to see a wide-eyed Kyle still on his knees. “Can you let Mrs H know.” At his nod I went to move but the Alpha was planted in place looking between the two of us.

“Who is Mrs H?” he asked, and I swallowed, looks like we will be playing twenty questions today as well.

“My apologies Alpha, Mrs H is Mrs Henderson, the head housekeeper.”

“And what is it that she needs to know?” He asked this time with his brows raised, something that made him look ridiculously sexy. I suppressed the shudder and shoved my wolfs thoughts out of my head so that I could focus on something other than her insatiable desire to see the monster naked.

“That I will be unable to continue with my duties this morning as my presence has been requested by the visiting Alpha.” I stated, careful not to lie to him as he eyed me briefly.

“Is this something you will get into trouble for?” at a shake of my head he continued. “Come on then.” He directed me back towards the house and I swallowed hard. A million possibilities were running through my head each worse than the last and every one of them had me wanting to run screaming, but I knew my duty, and my place in this pack. If I refused the Alpha, I would be killed for it, and as terrible as my life was overall, most days were perfectly happy, I didn’t want to die.

So, I took my own advice, there is nothing he can do to me that I cannot survive.

The Alpha led the way through the pack house, that he now seemed perfectly at ease in, up the stairs towards the quarters he had been assigned and opened the door gesturing that I should enter.

The door closed with a snick, and I literally jumped when his hand touched my shoulder, tugging me to turn me around. His eyes were blazing, a blue so dark I could practically feel his wolf below the surface.

I closed my eyes took a deep breath and prepared myself for the worst.

“Take off your dress.”